When a pet door panel is inserted in a sliding patio door the ability to utilize the screen door feature of the sliding patio door to ventilate the room to outside air is restricted since doing so would make the pet portal unusable as the screen door would block ingress and egress from and to the outside of the room. For example, the pet door panel, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,207,141, consists of three modules that are assembled to form the pet door panel for a sliding patio door. The bottom module contains the pet portal while the center and top modules are essentially solid filler pieces.
The current state of the art pet door panels for sliding patio doors do not have any ventilation feature and must be removed from the sliding patio door in order to close the screen to ventilate the room while keeping insects out or sliding the screen door closed over the pet door panel preventing ingress and egress of a pet through the pet portal. An aftermarket filler strip is available that may permit the screen door to be closed to the edge of the pet door panel leaving the portal free for pet use. However, in this configuration the screen door cannot be locked to prevent passage of a person.
Accordingly, there is a need for a pet door panel adapted to permit ventilation to the outside air directly through the sliding door insert for portable pet portal while providing a double pane clear polymer storm window for protection in foul weather and/or insulation in cold weather. There is a further need for a pet door panel wherein the center and top modules have openings housing a ventilation screen and storm window. In this manner, the storm window can be removed allowing outside air to infiltrate into the interior of the room containing the patio door and pet door panel without the need to remove the pet door panel and close the sliding patio door screen. There is a further need for a pet door panel whereby the screens are an integral part of the pet door and as such permit ventilation with the pet door panel installed and the sliding patio door locked preventing the unwanted passage of a person.